98 sebring rotor button

It depends which tdc ... Remember that the piston will be at TDC on both the compression and exhaust stroke.

If you turn a distributor to point the rotor rotor arm at no 1 terminal on the exhaust stroke, your timing is 180 degrees out.

Other wise yes, point the rotor arm at No1 terminal.

To check which TDC it is.. place your finger over the no 1 spark plug hole and get somebody to turn the engine for you. You'll feel the compression build up.

bring the no 1 piston up on compression stroke to TDC the rotor button will be pointing to no 1 plug HT lead point

Take out #1 plug if possible. put straw or something similar in plug hole on top of piston, put a wrench on crankshaft pulley nut and rotate engine. when piston gets to the top it should be on tdc. and rotor pointing to #1 wire on distributor cap. replace plug and adjust dist, if piston is on top, and dist, is off. pull dist so the rotor button points to #1. GOD-bless! OR YOU CAN ALSO ALIGN THE TDC MARK ON CRANKSHAFT DAMPER.

not necessarily-- it complies with the position of the rotor button and the lead it points to in the firing order
so start with the rotor button facing no one piston lead with the piston on tdc compression
put the lead to no one plug
move the crank in the direction of rotation and when the rotor button points to another lead that is the next plug to connect to
so with a firing order of 153624 (example) the lead wil be on the point when no one piston is on tdc compression
the next point will be no 5 piston ,the next point will be no 3 plug and so on
work shop manuals are a good source of accurate information

You have to put the number 1 cylinder at Top Dead Center of the compression stroke, and then you install the distributor with the rotor pointing to the #1 spark plug wire tower that is on the distributor cap.

Pull the spark plug from number 1 cylinder. You need a helper to turn the engine over by hand (using a socket on the crank pulley), or he can bump the starter over in very short bursts. Put your finger over the spark plug hole. When the piston is rising on the compression stroke, you will feel air pressure on your finger. Now look at the crank pulley and turn the engine on over until the zero degrees mark lines up on the timing pointer. Or you can stick a long straw or similar into the spark plug hole (don't let it drop into the cylinder!) to feel when the piston is at top of travel...see, you feel for pressure build up with finger (piston is rising on compression stroke), when you feel it, turn engine on over by hand until the piston is at top of travel-that is TDC of compression stroke. Now install distributor so that rotor ends up pointing directly to number 1 spark plug wire tower. Then follow firing order -as the rotor turns, it will follow the firing order around the dist. cap.
There are two top dead centers of each piston, tdc of compression stroke and tdc of exhaust stroke- to time the engine, you need tdc of compression-that is when the spark plug fires in the cylinder, so that is when you want the distributor in with the rotor pointing to #1.

should be just before the #1 plug because it fires as the piston has already started to go down. make sure its on the compression stroke and not the exhaust stroke

When #1 piston is up the rotor can be pointing to 2 different places. For every 1 turn on the crankshaft the camshaft turns 2 times. To be sure that the rotor is in the right position to fire #1 spark plug you need to remove the valve cover and watch the valves as you turn the engine. To be correctly positioned the intake valves have to be open and stasrting to close as you turn the crank to align the timing marks (TDC). As you pass TDC the intake valves are closed and the exhaust valves start to open. Back up so the timing marks line up and this is where the rotor is going to fire #1. If this is not what you are seeing, then simply rotate the engine 1 complete turn and you should see it happen then.

Unless you have changed the timing chain or removed the distributor this shouldn't be necessary.Perhaps if you suspect the truck has "jumped her time" then this could help to confirm. If you are doing routine maintenance, plugs, wires, cap and rotor then you don't need to be concerned that the timing marks line up but not the rotor button. Hope this helps.

The rotor should be pointing close to number 1, but keep in mind that the spark is actually supposed to happen before the piston gets to tdc so the rotor will be a little bit past the number 1 terminal when the crankshaft indicates that you're at tdc.

If # 1 cylinder is on compression stroke and at TDC, the ignition rotor should be pointing at the tab inside cap for # 1 spark plug wire.

when you bring the piston to TDC on the compression stroke
slide the distributor in and point the rotor towards the number one cylinder once you get it all back together but dont tighten the distributor down tight because you still have to adjust timing